Green Thumb, Greener Footprints

Our world is changing around us, often because of us, and not always for the best. There is a lot of doom and gloom in environmentalism–and for good reason. The unknowns are frightening, but only slightly less so than a lot of the scientific facts. The climate is changing. The world has experienced five mass extinctions–we are now in the sixth. Increasing human population is straining our resources and will only increase as modern luxuries reach more people.

All of that can be extremely overwhelming. What could you, a mere 1 in 7 billion, do about it? I personally believe you can do a lot. Especially if you spread the message to your friends and they to theirs. In ecology we talk about ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ controls. A bottom-up control would be when a food source changes or is limiting, which then effects the herbivore populations, which in turn effects the primary predators, secondary predators on up the food chain. Top-down controls are when predators control the system. I think this has a nice parallel to social movements and politics. A top-down control could be a law or a policy. The bottom-up is you and I, the individuals, making changes, spreading those changes and demanding larger change.

In efforts to spread this bottom-up environmental change, I will showcase things I do or have heard about that can make an impact, even small ones count. Included in this will be pieces on growing your own food, organic gardening tips, and inevitably a few personal gardening disasters (and how to avoid them). If there are topics you want covered, or things you feel make a difference, please add them to the comments section.